MC Squared
MC Squared is a podcast hosted by Andrew McNeil and Jimmy McKanna. We talk about local, state and federal issues as well as host a variety of guests. To contact the show please email us at themcsquaredpodcast@gmail.com
MC Squared
Mc Squared Live At The Fair!
We went live for the first time! Go check out Micah Beckwith's Podcast - https://www.youtube.com/@jesussexandpolitics6078
Intro music by Upstate - How Far We Can Go
So welcome to the MC Square Podcast. We are live. Like we said, we were gonna be at the Vigo County Fair, and we have to deal with a little bit of background noise because Vigo County knows how to party right, and so this is the free stage. We've got everything from country to Elton John to whatever you want going on.
Speaker 1:And it's echoing straight into the barn. Yes, now this is the republican barn garage. What is this? Uh, I feel like the republican shed the shed, and just to our left, closer to andrew's left, is the democratic set. That actually doesn't have anybody in it right now and there's a pretty good party going on out here, pretty much because we brought food, but there's a lot of people here and we're super excited about it. Yeah, um, and I'm excited to be here. It's gonna sound weird because of the stuff in the background, but this is how it works guys yeah, when we're going live.
Speaker 3:Yep, absolutely, we're on location, obviously. As you said, in on the vigo county fair we had a microphone die on us yep so actually the microphone is mine, it's the cord so, and we've been told that the music's gonna stop here shortly, so we have some pretty.
Speaker 3:We had some pretty exciting, uh, pretty exciting guests actually tonight we do um, he is here right now but, uh, at some point he's gonna make his way over here. We'll him some questions, give him a chance to talk, but we're going to be talking with Micah Beckwith, the Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor.
Speaker 1:That's a good way to put it, yeah.
Speaker 3:Awesome, all right. So, jimmy, anything exciting happening lately.
Speaker 1:Well, this is exciting. The setup back here is pretty awesome. So, if you don't notice, there are a ton of signs behind us. We should do our podcast here all the time, because the sign background is really awesome.
Speaker 1:It is pretty cool, but no, obviously Vigo County Fairs go on. We're midway through it this week. My kids have some things they put in the fair. We've already done the rides, we're already done with that and we're actually going to be going to state fair later on this in august. So that's exciting. Yeah, have they done that before? Yeah, usually one of them gets a, gets a project, that goes and then we go and ride the rides there, but it's, it's a cool outing at that time of the year, uh, but it's kind of a hot one here. If you're here locally, it's pretty hot in this barn right now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so folks, during while we're broadcasting, there's a live chat. Go watch it on YouTube. Yeah, if you're on YouTube, you know this. Join the chat. Send us your questions or comments. Questions for Micah Beckwith would be great. Hopefully, before he's finished with his interview, we'll be able to ask him a couple questions from the audience. That would be awesome. Yeah, yeah, and we'll be able to ask him a couple questions from the audience.
Speaker 1:That would be awesome, yeah.
Speaker 3:And we'll have some other folks here too. I think we're going to try to get the local chairman of the Republican Party on and he's got some personal exciting news politically that he's doing so it might be interesting to talk about. Yeah, that would be interesting, so anyway. Well, there's not been a lot going on politically, jimmy, since we talked last. There's not been an absolute collapse in the Democrat Party or anything, no, nothing along those lines.
Speaker 3:And what's crazy. It is a little bit, if you remember the story when we were all growing up of the emperor has no clothes. It's kind of like they've been telling themselves or trying to tell the rest of us actually that oh no, he's fully clothed, this guy's fully clothed, he's fully and mentally there, and then all of a sudden there was just a full exposure during that debate.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. And I mean, and the political pundits afterwards, they blew my mind because the act like this was a surprise, like the memes of the last three years were all not real, like you hadn't seen them, yes, like you hadn't seen a meme yet. I mean, we all kind of expected it. And unfortunately I mean really unfortunate for that man that he's being put through, that that's kind of the way I feel about this. And being stood up there, that man, that he's being put through that, that's kind of the way I feel about this. And being stood up there.
Speaker 1:Um, obviously I work in health care and uh, we have to actually we do assessments on our patients to make sure they're mentally competent, specifically if they're in a hospital room. They're going to fall or something like that, and I will guarantee you that he would be a fall risk. He would have a bracelet on his wrist because we'd be worried about him falling in a room because of the for one, his gate is way off, the Biden shuffle, the shuffle is way off, and then, uh, being able to answer questions, and so it's really sad that they're putting him up there. It's almost like I feel like maybe it's all planned, but I don't want to get too crazy with that, but it seems really odd that they would put him on that stage.
Speaker 3:Well, I'd be interested. Did you happen to watch the debate? I watched portions. Okay, I watched the whole debate. I was stunned from the very second it started, that they let him go out there like that. I wasn't surprised he was like that. I was surprised they didn't jog him up and down. He had a week to prepare for that. Yeah, and it was stunning.
Speaker 1:I really think they could have drugged him, though, but because they did it before. Andrew, Remember when he did it at the State of the Union.
Speaker 2:He was popped up baby.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So that makes me think like so why not this time? Why did you not give him?
Speaker 3:a chance. I would be interested to see. I mean, what did you think of the moderators, Because I thought their behavior was telling.
Speaker 1:It was. It was painful for them. I could tell it started getting really painful for all at some point Trump was quite restrained, I believe for what he could have unleashed, but I honestly think he was thinking the same thing, that all of us were like, whoa, this is a little bit scary. Yeah yeah, it was stunning. And this is the guy that has the button for the nukes, right? What?
Speaker 3:was really interesting to me too was the moderators CNN. They hate Trump and, if you notice, there wasn't any pushback to Trump's answers one time yeah, they didn't interrupt him, they didn't try to badger him or anything noticed. There wasn't any pushback to trump's question answers one time. Yeah, I mean they didn't interrupt him, they didn't try to, you know, badger him or anything. I, when that it was happening, I thought, ah, the fix, the fix is in. These guys have been given instructions. That's right instructions that's right and they're following orders.
Speaker 3:This is. This is uh deep six fight night. Not, it has nothing to do with trump so will it happen?
Speaker 1:Will they put him out there again? Does he have to go out again?
Speaker 3:He's supposed to be having a press conference, I think as we speak, or here maybe at 7 o'clock, and the staff has been calling it all day the big boy press conference, because they're going to let him just, you know, they're just going to let him go, oh boy. And if that's the case, yeah, they're. They're trying to eliminate him politically. Um, I was talking with a political figure here earlier, before we got going, and his theory was that the bidens are just waiting out for their, for their check, that they're negotiating the dollar amount that they want really to go, and that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1:It's probably a big one If you know how much money he's taken from other countries. It's not been small change, oh gosh no.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, they got to make sure Hunter's taken care of.
Speaker 3:This is crazy.
Speaker 2:They're partying out there. I wish you guys could see what we were watching.
Speaker 3:We're in the back, the red-headed stepchildren. You want to flip it around a little bit? Just flip it around real quick, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Just do a little food look.
Speaker 3:Can you see that? It's a madhouse? Those are all Republicans, folks.
Speaker 1:They're in Vigo County and they come for food too.
Speaker 3:Well, they do.
Speaker 1:Yeah. They usually don't come to shake a politician's hand, yeah, but if you're giving out a Sam's, hot dog get on it.
Speaker 3:So well, we're also excited. We haven't announced this or talked about it at all, but this has kind of gone on behind the scenes. And, by the way, we're going to get another cord. That's the first thing I'm purchasing when I leave here. We need to get a new cord so we can have guests. But we've got a new studio that we're going to be shooting from soon and I'm pretty excited about it actually. So I'm ready. It's your house. I know it's a secret location Jimmy.
Speaker 3:It's a secret location, now we gotta change it. Yes, the secret bunker, that's right, but uh, no, I'm pretty excited about that. Actually, I think the backdrop looks really cool.
Speaker 3:It's air conditioned we won't be sweating control yeah, and we're glistening today. Talk with the lieutenant governor nominee soon, micah Beckwith. For those of you outside of the state of Indiana not aware of the story that's gone on with this, it's pretty fascinating because Micah is a pastor out of Noblesville, indiana, and has been a political activist and also has his own talk show, his podcast, which I'm sure we'll mention. So I heard that correctly. Sorry about that. So Micah decided to run for lieutenant governor because conservatives in Indiana have been extremely frustrated with the governors the Republican governors that we've had One in particular, eric Holcomb for the last eight years. Yeah, blm riots, even the legislation and the national issue of having boys in girls' locker rooms for high school sports All of that was really important to the base, excuse me, and Holcomb was on the wrong side of that every single time he was.
Speaker 3:So the legislature had to step up and they overwrote some vetoes and they tried to rein him in with the COVID lockdowns, which was just completely crazy with that. So Micah has kind of come out of a grassroots desire for the base to have a voice in the not necessarily in the governor's base, but someone in high office that could speak, maybe, truth to power. Yeah, so he decided to run. Well, over a year ago, which is very unconventional Normally the nominee for governor picks his own lieutenant governor and it's just like the VP, they go to convention and it's just a formality, but not this time. He made it an amazing race. He competed for a year, going all over the state of Indiana, meeting at Lincoln Days and political events and groups and anybody who would have him, and he did a great job. Honestly, he did a fantastic job running.
Speaker 3:And so we me and Andrea we talked about this. We had a podcast right before the convention. Yeah, we were delegates, we got a chance to vote and honestly, that was a pretty boring convention up until the very. We were delegates, we got a chance to vote and honestly, it was a pretty boring convention up until the very end when we all voted and me and Andrea voted for him. I thought he was. I said that in the podcast.
Speaker 3:I thought he was going to lose in a close race and he won by about 70 to 80 votes and the roar that went up from the crowd I mean Jimmy was like we just won the Super Bowl. I'm not kidding, it was amazing, wow. And immediately the media pundits, the establishment, went crazy, ripping it as just you know. Nuts and people are going crazy. And what's happening here? Yeah, it's pretty funny. You get a Christian conservative actually on the ballot with an opportunity to win, and it's the so-called conservative party that tends to freak out a little bit. It was a lot of fun to see. Hopefully we're going to have him here any moment.
Speaker 1:I have something that actually came up this week that I thought was really interesting. It's something that happened at my work, work, and it's a little bit telling. So we we received, uh, a donation from the department of health and human services the feds okay of some ventilators.
Speaker 1:You're familiar with ventilators right, keep people alive. What we needed back in covid. Interesting thing about these ventilators they came into us and they were all dated, uh, with late march, early april 2020. They've got that date over all of them. There's actually education that was built by the cdc in late march, early april 2020. It's dated the information they sent with us. All of these ventilators we received 32 of them. All of these ventilators were ready to go at the end of March. Now that's prior.
Speaker 3:That would have been ordered prior to actually COVID becoming a big deal, wasn't it? Or was it closed? Well, it was right after.
Speaker 1:It was right after, but remember, this was the time when New York was drowning. We can't give them ventilators. When New York was drowning, we can't get them ventilators. These were ready. Are they brand new? They're brand new they're brand new stamps and now, four years later, they're giving them out for disaster relief. And it almost makes me think a little bit that maybe all this stuff was in place, ready to go, and something slowed it down or stopped it, because maybe taking advantage of something like that, there was an advantage to it.
Speaker 3:People talk about oh, you think everything's political, but you cannot remove the politics from what happened in COVID. It was completely hand-in-hand with the politics of trying to get rid of Donald Trump, that's right.
Speaker 1:So, yep, it was all about it. Just a bit eye-opening, all right.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you what folks.
Speaker 3:That's fine, okay. Tell them we're ready whenever Okay Got it. See if Randy wants to come on Okay.
Speaker 1:Oh man, here come on, randy's the team.
Speaker 3:Oh man here we go Want somebody else. Yeah, you also do right. Oh, we can hey have Amy lower it down. We're good. All right, folks we're going to probably have maybe a few candidates come through here. So one of them is the president of the local school board and she is a Republican. It is a nonpartisan board.
Speaker 1:It's a nonpartisan board.
Speaker 3:yeah, we're going to ask her. We may ask her some tough questions. I don't have any. She's running for re-election, you know maybe I don't know.
Speaker 1:So Drew, watch that chat in case there's any questions they want to ask.
Speaker 3:yeah, so if you, want to ask questions of amy laura. So folks were joined by uh, joined by amy laura, president of the indigo county school board, running for uh re-election. And amy, this is your. You're finishing up, your first term is that right, that is correct. I ran in 2020 for the first time, okay yep, so um, you ran in 2020 for the first time and had an almost a completely uneventful four years is that right?
Speaker 2:no right, yeah, absolutely nothing happened.
Speaker 3:I don't have an itwitch, or anything that you had to be in. All in all fairness, you had to be absolutely thrown to to the fire, and not just you but a lot of other folks that thought they were going to get maybe not a cush job, but definitely wasn't what they had signed up for. Talk to us a little bit about the biggest lessons you learned the last four years and then maybe some of the things you're looking forward to doing in your reelection.
Speaker 2:Yeah, were you about to say something.
Speaker 1:No, go for it no um, biggest lessons.
Speaker 2:Well, I knew it was going to be a rough position because in 2020 I mean, that was in the middle of the pandemic people were up in arms and uh, coming to school, board meetings and angry on both sides and everything, and uh, that was the crazy thing to do is to go around for school. At that point, right, um, so, um, when I got there, I was prepared for that, but I don't think I was ready for the level of stress that came with it. Some of those meetings got pretty intense, but the biggest lesson I have learned listen to everybody oh that's good and sit down with anybody who wants to have a reasonable conversation. That's my goal is to be a reasonable human being. I always think of Philippians, chapter 4, the Lord is at hand.
Speaker 2:Let your reasonableness be known to all, and that is my motto and that is what I try to live by. But moving forward, we have a new superintendent who's just phenomenal. He's a gift to our students, our entire community, and I just want to support what he's doing. He's riding the ship and doing things that I have wanted to see done for a long time. And, yeah, I'm really excited about where he's working.
Speaker 1:You've done a lot of great work, amy, and it's been a really crazy four years for you. What has been the most difficult situation, or maybe a time that you had to deal with?
Speaker 2:So I've been the president for two years this is the middle of the second year, I guess and when I took over as the president we had an interim superintendent. Our superintendent had left and an interim and that was a rough time. We were dealing with some social issues in the schools. People were up in arms and going to school board meetings and follow the instrument and carry on, and it was intense. And then during that time we were also in the process of looking for our district president. I got the board president. It's a board of equals Everybody has the same authority.
Speaker 2:The board president has more homework to do. That's how I described it. So I had extra homework in making sure we had the right search firm and getting all of those things organized on logistics making sure there was food on the night, stuff like that.
Speaker 4:So at any rate, that was, I could say, the first six months of last year most intense of my life Awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah that had to be super intense. That many boards never have to go through for many years, very valuable.
Speaker 2:We came together as a board. I was really proud. We have a very diverse board You're talking about where you're going to work with you and background and everybody's working together.
Speaker 1:It is amazing, when you mesh multiple different people together, not even of the same mind, how amazing, many amazing things you can do because of all those different perspectives coming together. And I think that's so important when we look at leadership. Going forward is making sure that we're not all of the same mindset, we're not all coming from the same direction, because we all really need to be challenged, because, I mean, I'm really stuck in some of the ways that I have, but I need to be challenged, and that's that's really to be a leader on a city or county or state level. I think you really need to have that diversity around you to make it so much better.
Speaker 2:I would also just say not being afraid of that. Actively seeking it out, because it makes you stronger, it makes you better 100% Awesome.
Speaker 1:Thanks, Amy.
Speaker 3:I feel like sometimes it's just picking up.
Speaker 1:well, just twist it a little bit towards you, not just this part right here. There you go.
Speaker 3:Is that better? I don't know. I have no idea. I feel like our equipment is just not being very nice tonight.
Speaker 1:It's the moisture.
Speaker 3:We'll just say that, first of all, it's the whole family that gets involved when you run, because when you get the backlash, when you get the criticism, they feel it probably sometimes more than you do. I feel like you kind of gave a good piece of advice, but what kind of advice would you give to somebody who's thinking about running for a public office, who feels convicted about, maybe, where things are and really wants to get involved? What kind of advice would you give them If you could go back and talk to the? Because you were in politics a little bit before so you probably were a little bit prepped for it. But what kind of advice would you give?
Speaker 2:So you're talking about somebody who wants to run for office? Yeah, I would say, if you're married, your spouse has to be your biggest supporter. Because when I was running the first time our youngest son was very young.
Speaker 4:And people would say oh, where's your husband, Where's your husband?
Speaker 2:And I'm like he is my main supporter.
Speaker 4:He is taking care of my kids so that I can be knocking doors and doing all that really hard work, but without that you're not going to make it.
Speaker 2:Well, in general you're not going to make it, but especially for our, but without that, you're not going to.
Speaker 4:You're not going to make it Well.
Speaker 2:In general, you're not going to make it Well. That's true Especially for our campaign, because it's such an intense. It's like a weird short-term, super intense business. It only lasts a couple of months and it comes back around.
Speaker 3:I brought a couple of family ones.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, we had some businesses go under.
Speaker 2:Yeah, businesses go under Right, the yeah, the spouse, and then you know I have an older son who is in high school, you know, and I said to him this time I was like what do you think about this?
Speaker 4:Do you want me to keep doing this?
Speaker 2:Is this embarrassing to you and to?
Speaker 4:my delight and surprise, he said I think it's kind of cool, you're doing that.
Speaker 2:He's like I don't like it when it makes you cry and I said I just they're angry tears sometimes. But, no, I, I do. I do cry a lot as a school board member, but that's because, um, I told somebody at church, you know, that they asked me to speak about something and I instantly started crying. But I'm like okay, the minute that I stopped being like emotionally connected to what's happening to the kids in our community who need advocates is the minute I'm not going to listen, absolutely. I don't apologize for that.
Speaker 1:Awesome hey. Thanks, Amy, and.
Speaker 2:I didn't cry here, you did a great job.
Speaker 1:No crying, we can't tell, because everybody's sweating, no kidding.
Speaker 5:It almost looks like tears anyway, for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you, amy, and good luck. Okay, folks, we told you he'd be on. This is the recent nominee for the Republican Lieutenant Governor. And, micah, it was an amazing convention, it was an amazing run over a year, and the question I wanted to ask you was what was it as a Christian, as a pastor, to take us through a little bit of that process of making the decision to do what you did and why you did what you did? And then I would love, love to hear behind the scenes what it was like at the convention and when you won, because most of us are never going to experience that and it was like a roar, like we'd won the Super Bowl when that thing went off. So I would love to hear that. Take your time, say whatever you want the mic is yours.
Speaker 5:Thank you guys, Thanks for having me. Well, so the going back to about two and a half years ago, I remember just being so frustrated with how the government was usurping its authority and shutting everything down, forcing people to get vaccine mandates, forcing kids to mask up in schools against parents will. And I remember just, you know, I've been a constitutional history teacher, I've been a pastor for a long time, I know American history, I know the Judeo-Christian principles that our nation was rooted in. And I remember thinking to myself the government doesn't have the authority to do what it's doing, but yet it's still doing it. And I would call my reps, I would call my the, the leaders in government. I said what are you doing? Like, get in the battle, stop this nonsense. And well, we don't, we can't. I'm like okay, fine, Well, I'll do something. So I just started speaking up as a pastor, I started writing religious exemptions for people, I started going to bat for parents whose kids were getting masked up in school. And you know, you just kind of you use your, you just kind of you use your, you use your influence to do good. And people start saying, hey, we want to, like, we want to help you whatever you do, and so so then I started thinking, OK, well, where is that check and balance that we should have had during the COVID stuff?
Speaker 5:Well, the lieutenant governor really has always been elected by the delegates in the, in the, in the state convention. But the delegates here's the dirty little secret that the establishment has really been telling us, or doesn't want us to know it's the delegates are told who to vote for, and so I've been a delegate since 2016,. I'm like I don't like being told who to vote for. Like stop telling me who to vote for. And so I started asking those questions Like, why can't we have a competition? Oh, we don't do it that way. Oh, that's not how we do it. And I said, well, that's not good enough for me. And then, really so about a year ago, I started. A little over a year ago, I started laying the groundwork to run for lieutenant governor, and we had a lot of influence already around the state for being a voice for people who needed help during the pandemic, and so I just basically answered the call.
Speaker 5:It was a God thing. I mean, God directs your steps. The Bible says we can plan out our path, but God is the one who directs our steps, and God really did that. So, going into the convention, let me take you to the day of, really the weekend of. You know, it's kind of like when David ran up against Goliath. People think that David was the underdog, but he really wasn't. David knew how to fight because God had prepared him on the Shepherd's Hill. He had already taken down a bear and a lion, and so. So David was really confident. And here's the other thing David was also previously anointed by Samuel to be king of Israel. So David knew essentially that he was death proof because he wasn't king yet. So he was running onto that battlefield with full confidence that God was going to be with him. And you know, it was kind of something like that too with me. I could just see God's hand in our steps.
Speaker 5:And all along the last year and a half, and I kind of went to the convention with that same confidence like, hey, God's in this. And you know, I really think we're going to win this, because this was even getting to the convention as strong as we were, I was like that's impossible, that should have never happened. And yet it was happening. And so I was like all right, Lord, you're in this. So when I stepped out on the stage to give up my speech, I wasn't nervous at all, it was phenomenal. I wasn't nervous at all, it was phenomenal. Oh, thank you. And then you know what it was. God's peace. I just said Lord, put me in the center of your will. Win, lose or draw. I just want to be in the center of your will. And then, so I almost missed the announcement that I won. I didn't, no, I just came out of the bathroom. I was in the bathroom.
Speaker 5:I'm going to tell you, I was in the bathroom, I was, I was in the bathroom, I was, you know, and trust me, I it was one of the most peaceful moments. There was nobody else in the bathroom. I was the first time I had been away from people for the whole weekend. I was like I could just stay in the bathroom here for like. So I come out and and they're like someone grabbed me, attached me on the shoulder, like hey, they're about ready to announce and literally, as I I find my wife, susan, they, they call, they call it right, and the place erupts. Yes, it did. And um, now here's the thing. I've been at convention before. You know. Randy had the, the chair of the convention. He wasn't actually announcing me as the winner when everyone thought I wonder, yes, what he was doing. And this is how they always do it. I think we probably need to change it for future conventions because it it makes more sense well, he was just going alphabetical, enlisting the vote.
Speaker 5:Oh boy, and so had. So, had we lost, that would have been super awkward and not not fun. But so so he says, you know, lieutenant governor, you know, uh, micah beckwith. And the place just erupts Right and I'm like saying hold up, hold up. I think he's just saying the vote. Yeah, I don't think. And then I'm like wait for Randy to be like I'm trying to explain this, but then he walks off the stage. Now I do know that I probably was the winner, because their body language the whole time on the stage was a little bit like oh no, what just happened? So I could see that coming and I was like I think we won this thing because nobody was up there excited on that stage. Now I will say this after the fact Randy's been great. Randy's the new chairman of the state party. He's really been such a team player. I love Randy. I think he's going to do a great job as chair in this interim. Whether he stays on longer or not, I guess that's for him and the bronze team to decide. But and then the bronze team has been great too. I mean, we, we really unified as a party, mike told me the other day. He said uh, he said, man, you, you're bringing a lot of energy to the base, you're, you're bringing back these disenfranchised republicans, and so I think they're seeing the beauty of what happened at the convention.
Speaker 5:Now here's the other thing that I think we did in Indiana. Let me explain this. I'm a big federalist, federalism, guy. I believe in state's authority. So go back to the Constitution, the federal system of government. We were supposed to have representation, but we had the House of Representatives and the US Senate. The House was always supposed to represent the people and the US Senate was supposed to represent the states. That's why the state legislatures would elect the US senators.
Speaker 5:But we gave that up in the early 1900s with the 17th Amendment. It's one of the worst amendments ever made. We need to repeal it. The 16th Amendment income tax could be the next one made. We need to repeal it. The 16th and then 16th amendment income tax could be the next one. So those are the two that we got to repeal.
Speaker 5:But so you know what we did in Indiana is we kind of brought back federalism, because here you have Mike Braun, who was elected by the people in May 7th in the primary, and then the delegates represented somebody to think about the party apparatus, right To represent the party in the system. And I think what the delegates know more than anybody else is how's the health of the Republican Party? They're keyed into that, and so what they said Micah, we want you to go into the battle for us, but remember the base of the party. Don't forget about us. And I'm a base party guy, that is my, that is my heartbeat, and so we really sort of returned Indiana into a little bit of a federalistic kind of mindset, and so I think that's been, it's been beautiful. So that's a kind of a long story, but that's kind of the yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Thanks, micah. Yeah, we were just talking to somebody from our school board and talking about how important it is in leadership to have diversity in your team, and I think that's something with indiana going this way and putting you on there with mike braun is just adds this diversity to the overall ticket and able to capture the entire amount of voters across indiana. So I'm super excited about that. So we're both followers of jesus and we both ran before. We both lost All right, and we both actually felt called to run before, and this actually started after that. What would you give to somebody? If you, if somebody, has on their heart to run for political office, what would you? What would you? What advice would you give them?
Speaker 5:Do it. I mean you don mean, don't think that winning is the ultimate goal. Winning an election is not the goal I told people. Listen, god called me to run. I don't know if he called me to win, that's up to him, right but I do know that when you run, you gain an influence. You gain a platform, whether it's big or small. You have new influence, and what I do know is that god is calling us to be influencers. That's right, and we need to take truth into a world full of lies, whether that's in your family, whether that's in your school, in your church, in your community, in your government, it doesn't matter. Just get out and influence.
Speaker 5:You know that we we are struggling in america with freedom under attack. I think we can all say freedom's under attack. Well, what does the Bible say about freedom? If you want it, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free, right. So what's the key to freedom? You got to know truth. Well, how do you know truth If people of truth won't go out there and speak the truth right?
Speaker 5:So so I think anyone who's called to engage in politics, to run for office, they should do it and recognize you're a true speaker and that won't return void. God's word does not return void. But there's two things here. We've got to know truth. Right now I think there are people running for office that I'm like I don't think you know truth at all. You wouldn't know truth if it hit you in the face, right? So you've got to first know truth and then you've got to be willing to speak it and you've got to be willing to take the arrows because, remember, truth in a world full of lies will be vilified.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so my litmus test on how good I'm doing is does the left and those who hate God, do they hate me? If they hate me and the Indy Star is attacking me and the media is attacking me, praise, attacking me like that, praise the lord. It just means I must be really good at speaking truth. Right, if they don't hate you, I would say you might want to check your. Uh, you'll check yourself because there's probably an issue. Yeah, right, you're compromised. So, yeah, so that's that's to me, uh, the the litmus test that I have. So you gotta know truth and truth will set you free.
Speaker 5:And then hosea 4-6 says this it my people perish for lack of knowledge, knowledge. So, again, one of the things I did in this lieutenant governor's race. I just knew how the system works Right, and people, especially in the establishment, when they found out what I was doing, they were like he can't do this. And then, like people who knew the system, were like, well, yeah, he can. And then they were like, well, he found a loophole. And they're like, well, it's not really a loophole, it's just he knew the system and he had gotten away from it, so really know the system, and then beat them at their own game.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 5:And I think that's you know and you will. And listen, I ran for Congress in 2020 and I lost. But if I wouldn't have done that, there's no way I would have been able to run for lieutenant governor. So it's all. It's all about planting seed. You know the kingdom principles like this is. This is what God always talks about. It's a, it's a principle of the seeds, right. So you sow the seed, you reap a harvest, then you collect the harvest and you sow more seed and you reap a bigger harvest. So every time you engage a little bit, you're sowing a little seed. Yeah, you're gonna reap a harvest. Don't, don't just lose and then go away say no, no, there was, you got, you got, you got a harvest there, now re-sow it and then something bigger is going to come the next time.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, thank you, uh micah, so much for uh joining us.
Speaker 3:We are gonna have to have you on after you have won, because you guys are gonna win yeah you have been, uh, an encouragement to all of us and and you're right, I I wrote immediately after your win with the base. This was a base win and the base is fired up and they need to be fired up because we need to win in november, that's right. So, uh, thank you so much for joining us. I know you're super busy. Gotta get out there and, uh, kiss the babies and shake the hands. All right, thank you, micah. So, folks, uh, that was micah beck with, uh, the republican nominee for lieutenant governor. Super nice guy, obviously. Very well spoken. We're gonna have to have him back on the program again. That was a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:We are actually joined right now by the chairman of the vigo County Republican Party, randy Gentry, and we're going to let him talk a little bit, I think, about the national convention which you're going to go to. I really want to hear how cheap this was, because I was actually on record as complaining about the $150 that we had to pay for Burson to go to the state convention, and then I heard the price tag on going to to electron, which is what this is about. Yeah, um, and I was flatly guessing. So we're down to two mics I'm going to give you the mic, we'll ask questions or whatever, and then I can give you my mic. Uh, okay, that's fine, all right. So so talk to us about this. What's, first of all, what's the process of being a delegate for the National Convention? I've always wondered this. And talk to us about the cost?
Speaker 4:Yeah well, the first thing is how you become a delegate to the National Convention. So in the state of Indiana there's 113 members of the Republican Party that go to the National Convention.
Speaker 3:Okay, how do they get?
Speaker 4:it, and so each congressional district gets three delegates and three alternates, and then the rest are appointed by the state chair. There are three, what we call. They're really not superdelegates, it's something that's loosely used, but it's the two committeemen. There's a committee woman and a committee man for each state and the state party chairman. So those are three guaranteed, and then the rest of them are appointed. So the process is I'd say it was probably February the chairman and the vice chairman from the 8th Congressional District got together and you basically run.
Speaker 4:It's like a campaign You're running and they vote on it, and so I'm very blessed. This is going to be my fourth convention, so I don't know if I'm blessed or broke. I'm probably both.
Speaker 4:So we're going to talk a little bit about money as well, but um, the neat thing here for vigo county never in the history of vigo county and I think it stands to where we are as a republican party today here in the county we're taking three delegates to the national convention. So there's been years that we didn't have anybody. We are the second largest county in the 8th congressional district so, but there's 92 counties in Indiana. 113 people get to go as part of the delegation and so we're taking three. So I'm pretty excited about that. So I'll be joined by Senator, state Senator Greg Good and former State Senator John Ford. So those gentlemen were appointed. I was elected. So kind of a slightly different path to get to where we're going. But we're all going and we're excited. So now it's a very, it's a very expensive endeavor. So my first convention cost me almost eight thousand dollars, oh my God. And so you know, you think about that's a car, that's you know, that's you know that's a year's worth of mortgage payments, whatever.
Speaker 4:So you have to be dedicated to do this. So, before I even leave Vigo County to go to Milwaukee this year, I'm right now around five thousand two hundred dollars. So, like I said, you got to be dedicated. It is a very unique experience.
Speaker 1:Historic.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and it is your part of history. Your names are going to be read into the congressional record. It's a neat experience and and, like I said, I will say that I'm very blessed to be able to say that this is my fourth one, and the last one got canceled. I'm not going to get into the students, get too sidetracked, but I was actually working in the White House, so I was going to go on a different route the last one but it was canceled because of COVID.
Speaker 4:So this is our first one since COVID and people are really fired up and obviously the national political scene is hot right now, so it's going to be a lot of fun. We're going to figure out who our vice president's going to be, we're obviously going to nominate Donald Trump, put him back in the White House, and so good things are ahead. So we're going to be up there for a week and looking forward to it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. Well, you've got a host of stories we could talk about sometime. We were definitely going to need to. We should revisit the Andrew winning the primary for state rep story behind the scenes sometime, but it probably would get us canceled, so I don't know if that's going to happen, but so you've been real quick. You've been a chairman of the Republican party in Vigo County for how many years?
Speaker 4:You know I've lost track. I think it's about a dozen years.
Speaker 3:And the salary you make from that takes care of everything.
Speaker 4:Yeah, zero, zero. It's a volunteer position, so I honestly think I need to be checked out and see why I keep doing it. It's fun.
Speaker 4:I mean obviously you know I tell people it's it's really. You know, just like tonight. You know we throw money into the hat. You basically you're trying to energize and you got to, you got to believe in what you're doing or you're the wrong person for the position. So you, you have to do that. But you know, even before I became the county chairman, I served as the vice chair of the 8th Congressional District. The county chairman I served as the vice chair of the 8th congressional district sat on the state committee. I kind of did things backwards and then I was involved in local politics and then I ended up becoming the chair. Matter of fact, the vacancy for the chairman occurred, I believe, when I was in Tampa, st Pete, for that convention, and so when I got back it was a caucus and that was my first run for county chair. So you know, I, like I said, I have multiple presidential campaigns.
Speaker 4:I could keep you guys busy for probably you could do 18 episodes and I mean. But I've worked for three presidential campaigns, numerous gubernatorial campaigns, so yeah, I've been around the world doing this. So a lot of fun and I've enjoyed every minute of it, even though the big paycheck is still in the mail.
Speaker 3:Well, we've really enjoyed being able to be here today tonight at the fair. We really appreciate your hosting us here in the Republican shed slash barn. I call it the barn. I call it the barn, the backdrop is pretty cool with all these signs of people that have run in the past. You know that Vigo County got to vote on Because not all of them are based in Vigo County but would have been on the ballot.
Speaker 4:All right. What we've tried to do is one. It's very colorful, yeah, and you know, so many times people run and I've always said this as chairman and before I was chairman is that when someone wants to run, they put their name on the ballot. You know, just because they didn't win doesn't mean that they haven't opened up a door for somebody else. They may have made some progress, uh, they may. You know, they've helped the party and and, and there's really no better way to do that than to put your name on the ballot and it's, if they really to be honest with you I don't, I'm not sure there's any other thing you can do within a party politics then that's greater than actually running. So what I wanted to do is create a tribute and a historical record of all the people that have run over the years.
Speaker 4:Now, I started this probably about five or six years ago, but I have yard signs that go back 20-some odd years, so we've nailed them and screwed them and put them all up here on the wall. It's colorful, it's cool, it's like a walk down memory lane every time you walk in, so it's fun. But hey, guys, I really thank you for joining us tonight. This has been a huge crowd. Obviously got the next lieutenant governor with you tonight too, and so what a night. And for the GOP and I'm just excited this November is going to be a great great time.
Speaker 3:It cannot get here soon enough, that is for sure.
Speaker 4:Well, thanks guys, I appreciate you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 3:All right, so we're probably going to wrap up here fairly short Did you have any questions? Come through Well. So this is the first time that one question, one viewer, yeah, oh, that's good. Well, here's the deal. A lot of folks are going to watch this after the fact. Yeah, and it's going to take consistency of going live at a certain time for us to build the audience, which is fine. Yeah, I think going live is the way to go. I totally want to do this next time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I agree. Hopefully it will be two weeks from tonight. Yeah, six thirty, that's that's probably the best time for us, so that's likely when we'll do it. It's really great because we get to talk about current events that happened right then. They could have happened an hour before the show. We could literally be commenting on it, and it's not stale and old, it shows up. What did you take away from that conversation with the lieutenant governor?
Speaker 1:So I love this story about David and I think almost I would even add to it for him, because before David actually went out on the battlefield, they tried to put Saul's armor on him Remember that, trying to put the armor of the old on top of him, but he didn't need it because he was already prepared. And I thought I think that's really interesting with Micah in the fact that he's coming from a different angle, yeah, and he's not taking the armor of the previous, yeah, and I don't know. I think it was really cool and you know, I love his perspective on losing, I mean, and the influence that comes from that.
Speaker 3:Well, I have seen that happen. I've talked about this in the past. You know, when I ran for Congress, I was running for one reason. God had me running for another and it was honestly a phenomenal thing that happened. God's deliver. Running for another, it was honestly a phenomenal thing that happened. God's deliverance for me. Boy, it felt painful losing. It wasn't what I was looking for. I wouldn't trade it, obviously, for anything in the world the second time. I'm still not sure exactly why I ran for state rep. Honestly, Jimmy, this podcast probably would not have happened, Me and you being able to work together. I think we figured out we kind of work well together and there's no way I want to do this podcast without you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So if you quit, I'm going to be pretty upset. I wasn't planning on quitting. I'm hoping you don't. I wasn't planning on quitting. I feel like we do. You know people are like, what are you talking about yourselves for? But I do feel like we work well together. It's a good working relationship and that's something that is a fruit of what's come out and, honestly, a lot of our viewers a lot of people don't know this, but a lot of the viewers and people that watch or listen to the podcast directly came from that campaign. Yeah, I mean, it's directly connected to it. Yeah, so we're waiting still to go viral. I mean, I don't even know what that is, but we're hoping to go viral for something.
Speaker 1:We've been antiviral for a while.
Speaker 3:Maybe that's the problem.
Speaker 1:You work at a hospital.
Speaker 3:Maybe that's the problem. Antivirals oh that's so, dad. That's such a dad joke. That is just awful. Well, I guess we'll probably go ahead and wrap up. Yeah, I think it's good.
Speaker 1:We appreciate you all being here Absolutely, and we plan on doing more live broadcasts and interviews. We're going to work this stuff out, and it was near seamless today, except for the one mic, yeah, but other than that, I think this has worked out really well. We appreciate you being here. Watch for when we pop up on YouTube for a live one, because you're going to get information that's happening that day. We would rather be able to give interviews and make it unscripted so that, uh, you can watch it and have something that's not maybe a couple days old. Uh, because we think that's really important. Fresh and, uh, yeah, we're real hot in here. I'm not saying that we're fresh right now, but but we appreciate you being here. If you have any questions, have any comments, have anything any place you want us to go live next time? The.
Speaker 3:MC Squared podcast at gmailcom. We're going to do live again.
Speaker 1:We absolutely are. If you've got a cool place for us the MC Squared podcast at gmailcom. The MC Squared podcast at gmailcom. We the MC squared podcast at gmailcom. The MC squared podcast at gmailcom. We both get that email and give us a spot to go live where there's a crowd. Hopefully there's not a band playing in the background next time, but a bunch of people around is always cool because you get the nice ambiance of Vigo County fair.
Speaker 3:And we're going to go get you know some fair food here shortly. If you and if you're here at Vigo County, stop, uh, if you and if you're here in vigo county, stop by the vigo county fair. It is, it is. I didn't want to say this and probably nobody's listening at this point it's almost an hour but somebody might be listening. But listen, this is a great fair, this is a great county fair. I have been a part of other county fairs and let me just say that, not to get around, not to disparage that the others, but I will say this is a great fairground. It is clean, uh, the, the, the crowd is just a good, family friendly crowd. Uh, lots of 4-h'ers.
Speaker 1:It's got great events out in the arena and honestly, I'm it's, it's just a fantastic place to say I love that perspective because a lot of people don't know what they have. Yeah, right, no it. No, it's true, yeah it's true, good.
Speaker 3:So, folks, once again, thank you so much for listening, watching. We ask that you would subscribe, share, please subscribe. You guys are our advertising we need. If you like the program, please get your friends and family to sign up on the YouTube channel. Share it with your friends and family and we'll see you next time.
Speaker 1:That's.